Key Contacts: Eoghan Doyle – Head of Corporate and M&A | Andrew Tzialli – Partner |
We are delighted to introduce the ninth edition of the Philip Lee LLP M&A Insights Guide produced by our Corporate and M&A team in association with Experian.
In this edition, we review deal activity across the first half of 2025 and consider the outlook for the rest of the year. This guide has been created in partnership with Experian, a global data and technology company, using their comprehensive database of business and financial information which monitors and tracks the behaviour of businesses in the UK and Ireland. The insight is generated from processing over 60 million records a month, taken from over 600 of the latest and most up-to-date sources of UK and international business data. This data is trusted and used daily by over 35,000 organisations to inform their business decision making. The Experian database utilised for this guide holds more than 600,000 global M&A transactions, supported by data from more than 250 of the world’s foremost professional advisory firms.
Ireland
After the record highs of 2025, deal activity moderated (with a reduction of 15%) in Ireland in the first half of 2025 when compared to the same period in 2024. Deal values experienced a bounce by 27%, where a number of mega-deals over €1 billion, shifted the steady increase experienced in previous years. The consistent themes on sector and bidder countries continued from 2024 into 2025, where technology remained the most active sector and the UK was, once again the most active bidder country for Irish target businesses. Outgoing deals experienced a notable increase in values, from an increase of €2.7 billion in 2024 to €20 billion in 2025.
UK
Following the exceptional highs recorded at the end of 2024, the UK market normalised in H1 2025, with a slight decline in transaction volume. A total of 3,003 transactions were completed, compared to 3,589 deals recorded in the first half of 2024. Despite this decline, domestic transactions continued to drive overall activity, and the UK remained an attractive market for international acquirers. International investors particularly targeted the UK’s technology, media, and telecommunications sector, making it the most sought-after industry by overseas buyers, with US-based firms leading the international interest. Sweden ranked as the second most active overseas investor, focusing primarily on the UK’s manufacturing sector.
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